Supreme Court

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch to fill the seat on the U.S. Supreme Court that has been empty since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February 2016.

Trump described Gorsuch as a man the country needs, adding his pick for the high court already has had bipartisan support. "Judge Gorsuch has outstanding legal skills, a brilliant mind, tremendous discipline," he said in announcing his nominee Jan. 31 at the White House.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. abortion rate is down to its lowest level since the Supreme Court made abortion legal virtually on demand in 1973, and the rate is half of its early-1980s peak.

According to a study issued Jan. 17 by the Guttmacher Institute, the abortion rate for U.S. women ages 15-44 is 14.6 per 1,000 in 2014, the last year for which statistics are available. The figure represents a 14 percent decline from the 2011 numbers, and less than half of the 1981 rate of 29.4 abortions per 1,000 women of child-bearing age.

WASHINGTON -– In a 5-3 vote June 27, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down restrictions on Texas abortion clinics that required them to comply with standards of ambulatory surgical centers and required their doctors to have admitting privileges at local hospitals.

The case, Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt, challenged a 2013 state law, H.B. 2, placing the requirements on the state's abortion clinics. Opponents of the law claimed the requirements were aimed at closing abortion clinics. But the state and many pro-life advocates maintained that the law protected women's health.

WASHINGTON — During oral arguments March 23 at the Supreme Court, attorneys on both sides of the Affordable Care Act's contraceptive requirement examined how the mandate either violates or strikes a balance with religious freedom.

Lawyers representing the seven groups of plaintiffs said the federal government's so-called accommodation for religious employers to arrange for a third party to provide contraceptive coverage in health plans was inconsistent because the government already had been able to provide churches an exemption from the requirement.

Katie Sleeman, Breanna Colombini, Rachel Kondro and a half dozen others from Women Speak for Themselves prepared to give Kisses to the elderly residents of the Little Sisters of the Poor Residence in north St. Louis.

WASHINGTON — During oral arguments March 23 at the Supreme Court, attorneys on both sides of the Affordable Care Act's contraceptive requirement examined how the mandate either violates or strikes a balance with religious freedom.

Lawyers representing the seven groups of plaintiffs said the federal government's so-called accommodation for religious employers to arrange for a third party to provide contraceptive coverage in health plans was inconsistent because the government already had been able to provide churches an exemption from the requirement.